Dylan Ratigan, a former MSNBC host and entrepreneur, is running for New York’s 21st Congressional District. “I’m running to improve leadership in American government, period, by bringing the independent thinking, straight shooting values of this district to America,” he said.

SARANAC LAKE | Dylan Ratigan, a former MSNBC host, author and entrepreneur, has entered the race for New York’s 21st Congressional District.

“I will be running as a potential candidate in the Democratic Party primary, but at the end of the day, I will be running as Dylan Ratigan from Saranac Lake for every single person in the district,” Ratigan said.

Ratigan made the announcement Wednesday in Saranac Lake at a sprawling, hour-long press conference that saw him preventively address a number of potential bombshells — including recreational drug use in college and the fact that he’s never voted.

The candidate registered to vote locally only last week at the Essex County Board of Elections in Elizabethtown.

“Here’s my political reality: I’ve never voted in my life,” Ratigan told The Sun. “I registered as a Democrat at a time I don’t even remember as part of jury duty when I was working in New York City.”

In a sense, his campaign serves somewhat as penance, he said, particularly as he’s watched the quality of leadership deteriorate in the country to an extent he finds unacceptable.

“I was wrong. I was wrong not to vote, and I was wrong in my belief that I could express my point of view relative to the political activity of this economy through journalism and through business,” Ratigan said. “I was sorely mistaken.”

TENTH CANDIDATE

The decision is a heavily-expected announcement that had the North Country political sphere buzzing for the past week.

“It’s a good thing so many people are interested,” Kosmider told The Sun. “The primary will tell the story.”

Ratigan's entry may prove to complicate the competition for financial resources in the remote, rural district.

The candidate said he’d rely on small dollar donations to fund his campaign, pointing towards an ActBlue account that went live on Tuesday.

Mike Derrick, the Democratic candidate in 2016, raised about $1.3 million in the last election cycle, and the field has already collectively surpassed that nine months before the general election.

'VAST PROBLEMS'

The candidate is best known for his “Dylan Ratigan rant,” a populist tear in which he lambasted U.S. economic policy as “reckless, irresponsible and stupid” following a market crash in 2011, leaving his MSNBC co-panelists agog.

The “The Young Turks” commentator cited his rugged brand of Adirondack meets Wall Street economic populism as the main plank underpinning his campaign, pledging to bring relief to a region that has twice the national unemployment rate.

The problems facing the country are too vast to continue engaging in what he said was “the indulgence of dissent," and the extraction of resources from rural communities creates fear and “engenders the politics of hate and tribalism.”

“The policies that dictate public and private finance are designed to remove resources from communities and cities and designed to consolidate them in the hands of a few people,” he said.

Ratigan's announcement is almost sure to bring a national focus to the race and a spotlight on the incumbent, who tends to keep a low-profile, touting a record of optimistic results-oriented leadership.

SELF-MADE MAN

Ratigan, 45, grew up in Saranac Lake and graduated from Saranac Lake Central.

But he has spent most of his professional life elsewhere.

He attended Union College in Schenectady in 1994 and moved to New York City. Following a stint at the Bloomberg News Service, he engaged in a number of media-related pursuits, including the “Dylan Ratigan Show,” which he hosted from 2009 to 2012 on MSNBC.

Ratigan told The Sun he grew frustrated at the political process and its ability to create value for people during his waning years at the network.

After leaving what he referred to as a “cushy commentator” gig, he returned to Lake Placid and invested his life savings in co-founding Helical Holdings in 2012 with a Louisiana oil executive.

The company creates standardized hydroponic kits to empower veterans to run small farms, a concept generated from discussions with combat vets on global security.

“I’ve been living in Lake Placid as my base of operations as I’ve traveled around building my business across the country,” Ratigan said.

He said on Wednesday the Olympic Village serves as his sole residence.

Young people shouldn’t have to leave the Adirondacks to build their careers, he said. But many are forced to due to a lack of opportunities.

In a region where residency is a lightning rod, Ratigan is aware some may brand him as a carpetbagger.

“I think I’m like a lot of young people from this district who would love to stay and want to stay, but the lack of opportunity forced a lot of people to migrate out of the district, and that’s a shame,” Ratigan said. “I shouldn’t have had to go to the lower parts of the state to make my career.”

DEEP LOCAL ROOTS

Ratigan spoke to The Sun on a snowy weekday afternoon as he bombed around Saranac Lake in his Toyota 4Runner.

He first navigated the sprawling district as a high school football player in the back of a yellow school bus, from Massena to Ticonderoga to Plattsburgh.

And now he will do it again as he attempts to clinch the nomination.

Voters can expect four months of “direct engagement,” he said.

The Ratigan family history in the U.S. dates back to the 1700s, before the American Revolution.

The candidate traced his Irish-Catholic roots to William Gilliland, the Irish immigrant who settled vast tracts of land across much of Essex and Clinton counties, including what is now Willsboro and Elizabethtown, the Essex County seat.

A great-great uncle opened one of the first hotels in the region in Irishtown, near Minerva.

“He was creating early hospitality in the district for fur trappers who were up here trying to make a living,” Ratigan said.

Ratigan’s immediate family has roots in the health care sector. His mother, Adrienne, worked at Essex County Department of Mental Health for much of her career, and his father at Glens Falls-area hospitals.

An uncle, Patrick Ratigan, currently serves as a priest at St. Bernard’s Church, and attended the campaign event on Wednesday.

Another relative owned a Studebaker dealership in Plattsburgh.

“If it was Ford F150s, we’d all be rich,” Ratigan said.

But perhaps most famously, his grandfather, Frank, served as mayor of the Village of Saranac Lake from 1957 to 1961, and the namesake bridge spanning the Saranac River was dedicated to him in 1999.

It’s these family connections — the deep woods settlers, the small business owners, the regional politicians and the current community pillars — paired with his professional background that gives Ratigan what he believes is an innate understanding of the district that surpasses the current crop of candidates.

“It’s an understanding that you can only have if an intimate member of your family worked directly with those most in need in this district,” he said.

Ratigan believes he can harness this understanding and marry it to his expertise in economic policy as a chief asset for the district.

EYE ON RESIDENCY

Residency has always been a key issue underpinning politics in the North Country.

Stefanik is famously accused of carpetbagging by critics — the lawmaker was born in Albany County and later relocated to Willsboro after serving in the Bush administration — and past and present candidates routinely tout family connections stretching back generations as part of their bios replete with photos of plaid outfits, woodsy demeanors and folksy, homespun anecdotes.

Is the family connection important, and does it really indicate how well a candidate can represent the district?

“I think the best person to represent the district is the person who understands it the best who can bring the most resources to it,” Ratigan said. “I think typically that person is someone who was born and raised here.”

If elected, Ratigan said he has enough understanding of how to drive incentive investment, public and private, into the district on a level he said would be “unprecedented.”

At the center of his emerging campaign is unemployment.

The unemployment rate in New York’s 21st Congressional District is twice the national average.

Ratigan wants to reduce that number to half the national average — especially when it comes to ensuring returning veterans have a pipeline of resources waiting for them following their deployments, from education to farming, health care and small business.

NO PLATITUDES

Ratigan said he has racked up hundreds and thousands of hours of debate time with federal politicians and Beltway officials.

The exchanges often proved to be interesting and formative. But they were also frustrating owing to what Ratigan said was a lack of "seriousness and truthfulness" in their words and actions.

Ratigan said to expect an issues-driven campaign.

“This is not going to be a shallow campaign,” he said. “This is not going to be platitudes.”

His broadcast career has seen him opine on nearly every conceivable issue.

“Want to know what I think about health care? Education? Read the chapters in my book,” he said, referring to “Greedy Bastards: How We Can Stop Corporate Communists, Banksters, and Other Vampires from Sucking America Dry.”

“You’ll find a deep archive of my views on every single issue that could possibly exist."

Or Google “Dylan Ratigan rant.”

Ratigan said in the viral clip that Democrats and Republicans were refusing to admit that the U.S. was being “extracted.”

He urged then-President Obama to appear before Congress and say he would circumvent the legislative body until money was stripped from politics.

“Your Congress is incapable of making legislation on health care, banking, trade or taxes because if they do it, they will lose their political funding, and they won’t do it,” said Ratigan.

He doubled down on Wednesday, arguing he “absolutely” stood by those statements seven years later.

“Ultimately, this is a job about listening and engaging in the district and bringing those ideas into the House of Representatives,” Ratigan said.

BIG FIELD

Democrats must win 24 seats to take back the GOP-controlled House.

Four months ahead of the Democratic primary, the field has swelled, a measure that has some Democratic officials skittish that the large pack will weaken the party’s chances of taking back the seat they lost in 2014, splintering resources and harming the party in the process.

The Stefanik campaign team appears downright gleeful that the field shows no sign of winnowing.

Ahead of a primary forum last week, a spokesman said the candidates are running increasingly left of voters in the district, which has a comfortable Republican voter registration advantage.

“The Democratic party has failed to coalesce behind a single candidate, none of whom has broken away from the pack or built a strong campaign,” said Lenny Alcivar, the spokesman, who touted Stefanik’s coalition of Republicans, Democrats and independents that saw the lawmaker carve out a 35 point victory in 2016.

New York State GOP Committee North Country Regional Vice Chair Shaun Gillilland said Ratigan was “airdropped” directly into the district by the Democratic National Committee.

Ratigan, said Gillilland, is “someone who has no record of ever voting in New York State and has an on-air record of misogynistic tendencies.”

“(He’s) an insult to the already crowded field of NY21 Democratic candidates and is bad news when it comes to outside meddling in NY21 elections,” Gillilland told The Sun. “Every time we think the Democrats in New York’s 21st District couldn’t get any more liberal, we’re quickly proven wrong with this bizarre candidate.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee also piled on.

“It’s only fitting that Dylan Ratigan would move from New York City and the first vote he casts will be for himself,” said NRCC spokesman Chris Martin in a statement. “He’s a liberal talking head with no voting record, and now he’s running for Congress in a desperate grasp for relevance.”

Ratigan views the number of candidates as “a great sign for America” and said his decision to run is not a referendum on the state of the field — or the incumbent, who he did not mention by name.

“I think it’s the greatest sign in American democracy,” Ratigan said. “I think there should be 10 in any race in America.”

He’s the second candidate from Saranac Lake to announce.

Emily Martz, an economic development consultant, launched a bid last July.

She blasted Ratigan on Tuesday.

"Doing the same thing and expecting different results is definition of insanity,” Martz said in a statement, presumably referring to the campaigns of Derrick and Aaron Woolf, a wealthy filmmaker and restaurant owner with deep New York City ties, in 2014.

“It's the age of women, and it's the age of the regular guy in rural America working hard to feed his family," Martz said. "We've had enough of self-serving, wealthy individuals taking advantage of the North Country, peddling their wealth and notoriety to bolster their own agenda. We have real challenges and we need a real North Country woman and leader to deal with them. That's who I am, and that's why I'm running. Mr. Ratigan, welcome to the race."

Saranac Lake Mayor Clyde Rabideau attended and introduced both campaign announcements, and stopped short of issuing an official endorsement on Wednesday.

At least one of Ratigan's opponents also attended the rollout: Sara Idleman, a Washington County lawmaker and former educator.

Idleman told The Sun she was disappointed.

"I'm told three of our county chairs are already supporting him when in fact, they said they are not supporting anyone," Idleman said. "The county chairs have been derelict in their duty. As leaders, they should be encouraging and supporting local candidates."

Ratigan has been careful not to criticize any of his competitors.

But winning ultimately comes down who can leverage the most resources for the district, Ratigan said.

“Whether it’s the entire field or the incumbent, I can do a better job of bringing the resources that this district needs into play,” he said.

The campaign continued to fall into place last week as Ratigan finalized his logo — he showed an American flag draft to a reporter — hired staff, revamped his website and set up fundraising portals.

Comments (2)

Dyllitante Rtigan

re:"At least one of Ratigan's opponents also attended the rollout: Sara Idleman, a Washington County lawmaker and former educator. "

& Ms. Idleman had had her hand raised for quite some time, but had been hidden behind the MSM cameras & their operators. I'd moved her to a chair in row 2, where she continued to be ignored - a reporter had butted in with the RNCC statement from the ether, the NCPR local media star, seated in row 1 at the right hand of "Father Pat" (the pastor of St. Bernards, not the "Father Pat" who we'd bested in the Town of Harrietstown Justice Court in July 2017 - he being the "Code Enforcer" for Mayor Rabideau, whose administration has ruled "by decree" in defiance of the Judicial System local & Federal, in that he blocks me from posting criticism of his moves against me on his "Government Official" Facebook page - Ask POTUS Trump what the Federal Corts had said about his similar actions on his social media accounts.

The Adirondack Daily Enterprise, who had also been swept up in our "sting" - also blocks me from posting on their FB page - however, their owners at Ogden Newspapers allow me access to the Enterprise's web page, where the Facebook Comments Plugin is used - the coal & data-miners of Wheeling WV are libertarian GOPers - & we've communicated back-channel for over a decade - & with Facebook since 2010.

Mayor Rabideau had known who Sara Idleman was, & cut off the Q&A just as she would have been called upon --

Mr. Ratigan? You travel with a questionable VSL crowd - some in govt., some in media -The former "Senior Staff Writer" for the ADE was not there, having landed a gig as "Spin Doctor" for North Country Community College, whose President & The Mayor are tight in land swapping deals -- the former smug little local media star filling a "long dormant position" at NCCC after having been sent to trash me on July 19, 2017 by his mnaging editor, who was not at the Ratigan pre-coronation interview at the ADE earlier in the day.

That managing editor had placed that hilariously libelous piece on page 1 on July 21, 2017 -- a sole totally unreliable & uninformed source being key - a new low for even the ADE --

Matt Drudge, not a journalist, with a single reliable source, had "trumped" Mike Isikoff on the Monica thing -- he'd been waiting for confirmation from his 2nd reliable source.The world of "3 reliable sources" had died with "Watergate" --

Keep the faith, Pete @ sun news -- you'd outed me - & now I move to "Page 1" at FCC with the departure of Ms. Tanya Boone, but will take a nose dive when Q1 2018 Financialshave been filed - but "Joseph Kopser" will fall as well -- you think his inclusion is coincidental? ;)

Mr. Ratigan? Fight hard for the NCPR/ADE/Mayor Rabideau endorsement - After his unopposed re-election in March? We'll have to take the initiative - & drag the VSL govt. into NYS Supreme Court - they've had over half a year to make good on that promise made in writing - October 2013 -Why the delay?

Steve Schnibbe297 days ago

Dem Candidate

"I did drugs in college and I have never voted in my life." What a wonderful resume. I remember the time in Mogadishu, 1992, sitting behind a sandbag wall with my rifle and as the sun was going down I had just enough light to fill out my absentee ballot and get it back to the ship so it could be mailed to the Jefferson County election office.